Internal combustion engines has been used for more than 100 years. The use of the abundant energy supply stored as hydrocarbon fueled unprecedented economic growth. The use of hydrocarbons increased the work output of human labor significantly, thus increasing the economy and prosperity. However, during the latter part of the twentieth century negative consequences of the internal combustion engine has been noticed. Initially the being emissions of local pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and unburnt hydrocarbons. These pollutants have to this day in the western world been reduced significantly and further reductions are under way. Thereafter, has the focus been shifted somewhat to global emissions such as carbon dioxide due to the effect on the climate. However, as the most accessible oil resources have been exhausted the price of oil has five folded since the turn of the century, straining the exponential economic growth enjoyed for two centuries. Heavy duty diesel engine efficiency is still below 50\%, there is thus a need and a possibility to further increase engine efficiency. In this thesis, work has been done to increase the understanding of the flow prior to combustion. A better knowledge of pre-combustion in-cylinder flow would increase the possibility to reduce engine emissions and fuel consumption, through better mixing and lower heat transfer. The work presented is ordered in such a way that the flow structures created during the intake is presented first. Thereafter, the effect of compression is investigated. Intake flow structures are studied using Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) and experiments on a steady swirl test rig. The effects of compression are studied using simulations of predefined flow structures undergoing compression. It is found that the flow structures created during intake is qualitatively different depending of intake valve lift. And that a single Swirl Number (SN) is an insufficient quantity to characterize the flow created at low valve lifts, due to high fluctuations. During compression it is found that a high swirl number suppress small scale turbulence while the compression has an increasing effect of axial fluctuations due to vorticity-dilation interaction. Additionally, it is shown that turbulent kinetic energy is introduced in the flow field by the piston in the absence of tumble breakdown. / <p>QC 20130704</p>

In turbomachinery applications as propulsion and power generation, there is a continuous endeavour to design engines with higher efficiency, driving the compressor and turbine blades towards slimmer and more aerodynamically loaded configurations that frequently operate with fluids at higher temperatures and speeds. This combination of reduced design space and adverse operating environment makes the blades more susceptible to flutter and challenges the designer to predict its occurrence. Nowadays there are different CFD solvers that allow the prediction of flutter in turbomachinery; some of them are more efficient than others and provide considerable computational power savings when compared with traditional CFD methods that sometimes require the simulation of several or all the blades in a given row. The present thesis work is aimed at investigating the strengths and potential limitations of a novel time marching method for Flutter prediction in the Travelling Wave Mode (TWM) domain available in ANSYS CFX 14.5. The results are compared with experimental measurements obtained at the KTH test rig and CFD simulations in the Influence Coefficient Domain (INFC) performed in a previous MSc. Thesis in 2013. An approach in CFX to solve flutter is the Fourier Transformation method that uses only two passages with phase lagged periodic boundary conditions. In the previous thesis only one operating point was calculated using this method. This project focuses on the extension of the calculations to various operating points and expanding the solver validation. / <p>Thesis work done at Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery, Finspang, Sweden.</p>

The characterization of the vibromixer principles, in particular FUNDAMIX® technology produced bythe Swiss company Dr.Mueller AG, is the focus of this study. Tests varying the vibration’s frequencies andamplitudes, as well as the mixing plate geometry, in terms of number of holes and their diameter, are done.Interesting results regarding these parameters are obtained, proving problem complexity and previousexperience. Higher amplitudes and frequencies result in a better fluid dynamic performance of thevibromixer, i.e. flow rate formed due to pumping capacity of the plate and creating the liquid recirculation.The available total area of the holes should be limited too. Different fluid viscosities (up to 1212mPa/s) aretested and possible carbon fiber improvements in the shaft production briefly discussed. Finally, aComputational Fluid Dynamic approach is done and possible further researches are covered.

The implementation of a ported shroud casing treatment is often used to extend the operating range of a centrifugal compressor. This work utilizes the STAR-CCM+ CFD package to analyze steady-state, single-passage simulations of a centrifugal compressor with and without a ported shroud to better understand how a ported shroud affects compressor flow physics. Verification and validation of simulations were conducted by comparison of results with a time-accurate full-annulus simulation and experimental data. Four different ported shroud revisions were considered and modeled along the full range of their stable operation, with emphasis placed on the flow limits of choke and stall. A ported shroud is found to improve the choked mass flow limit by increasing the aerodynamic area of the compressor. Near-stall operation is improved through flow recirculation through the ported shroud. This flow, which is induced with a large component of tangential velocity from having passed the impeller blades' leading edge once, reduces the impeller incidence. The influence of a strut is found to restrict both limits of operation by reducing the aerodynamic area and obstruction of tangential velocity. The revisions considered demonstrate that facilitation of flow entering the ported shroud under either near-stall or choked conditions causes a noteworthy improvement in performance. Such alterations, in this application, demonstrate a 3.3% improvement in choked mass flow rate under choked conditions and an 1.3 degree reduction in impeller incidence under near-stall conditions, as compared to the initial ported shroud design. Understanding the effect that a ported shroud casing treatment has on compressor flow physics, especially near its limits of operation, suggests methods for improving centrifugal compressor design to increase its stable operating range.

Within the course of the master thesis project, two thermal phase change models for direct contact conden-sation were developed with different modeling approaches, namely interfacial heat transfer and combustionanalysis approach.After understanding the OpenFOAM framework for two phase flow solvers with phase change capabilities,a new solver, including the two developed models for phase change, was implemented under the name of interPhaseChangeCondenseTempFoam and analyzed in a series of 18 tests in order to determine the physicalbehavior and robustness of the developed models. The solvers use a volume-of-fluid (VOF) approach withmixed fluid properties.It has been shown that the approach with inter-facial heat transfer shows physical behavior, a strong timestep robustness and good grid convergence properties. The solver can be used as a basis for more advancedsolvers within the phase change class.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is the analytical process of predicting fluid flow, mass transfer, chemical reactions, and other related phenomena during the design or manufacturing process. Aggressive use of CFD provides drastic reductions in wind tunnel time and lowers the number of experimental rig tests. CFD saves hundreds of millions of dollars for industries, governments, and national laboratories, offering the potential to deliver superior understanding and insight into the critical physical phenomena limiting component performance. Thus, CFD opens new frontiers in many fields, especially vehicle design. One key strength of CFD is its ability to produce simulations useful in inverse design and optimization problems. However, a simulation in a conventional solver is considerably time-consuming to converge. To enable more efficient and scalable CFD simulations, we leverage the universal approximation property of machine learning using deep neural networks (DNNs) to estimate a surrogate solution to the CFD simulation. We present an implementation of this idea in two different models, one representing the eulerian model for compressible viscous flows and another representing the compressible Navier–Stokes equations. Lastly, we discuss the compressible Navier–Stokes network’s performance by implementing an inverse design problem to know if a gradient descent step of the model w.r.t the shape would grant the optimal solution. After training, predictions from these networks are faster than conventional solvers. The network predicts the flow fields hundreds of times faster than current conventional CFD solvers while maintaining good accuracy. Using the network’s predicted solutions to initialize a CFD solver sufficiently speeds up the simulation.

A feedwater heater is a typical component in power plants which increases the cycle efficiency. Over the last decade, renewable energies have significantly developed and been employed in the power grid. However, weather conditions are inconsistent and therefore produce variable power. Fossil fuel power stations are often required to supplement the variable renewable energies, which increased the rate of power cycling to an unforeseeable extent over the past decade. Power cycling results in changes in the flow rate, pressure, and temperature of a feedwater heater’s inlet flows. In a tubesheet-type feedwater heater, these transients induce cycling stress in the tubesheet and failures due to thermal fatigue occur. The header-type feedwater is currently employed in high pressure applications as it is more resistant to thermal fatigue compared to the tubesheet-type. However, the tubesheet-type is more cost effective to construct and maintain. It would be advantageous if the cyclic thermal stresses in the tubesheet can be better analysed and alleviated to support the use of the tubesheet-type. A detailed transient temperature distribution of the tubesheet is required to understand the thermal fatigue. Normally, engineers opt towards a full CFD to obtain such results. However, the size and complexity of a feedwater heater is immense and cannot be simulated practically solely using CFD spatial elements. This study developed a multiscale approach that thermally couples 1D network elements, CFD spatial elements, and macroscopic heat transfer correlations to reduce the computational expense substantially. The combination of the various selected techniques and the specific application of this methodology is unique. This approach is capable of obtaining the detailed transient temperature distribution of the tubesheet in a reasonable time, as well as include the effects of the upstream and downstream components within the network model. The methodology was implemented using Flownex and Ansys Fluent for the 1D network and CFD solvers, respectively. The internal tube flow was modelled using 1D network elements, while the steam was modelled with CFD. Thermal discretisation, mapping, and convergence were considered to create a robust methodology not limited to feedwater heaters only. Additionally, a method was developed to analyse flow maldistribution in tube-bundles using the coupled 1D-3D approach. The implementation of the methodology consists of two parts, of which one is for development purposes, and the other serves as a demonstration. The development was done on a simple TEMA-FU heat exchanger which is representative of a feedwater heater. The methodology was tested by varying the primary fluid’s flow rates, changing the fluid media, and conducting transient simulations. The temperature distributions obtained were compared against a full CFD model and corresponded very well with errors less than 4%. A reduction in computational time of more than 40% was achieved but is highly dependent on the specific problem. Improvements to be made in future studies include the accuracy of the laminar case method and the stability of the flow maldistribution algorithm. The methodology was demonstrated by applying it to an existing industrial feedwater heater. No plant data was available to use for input conditions and therefore were assumed. The steam in the DSH was modelled using 3D CFD elements and the tube flow with 1D network elements. The condensing zone’s heat transfer was approximated using an empirical correlation. A steady state case was simulated and the outlet temperatures corresponded well with the manufacturer’s data. The temperature distribution of the tubesheet and surrounding solids were obtained. Finally, assumed sinusoidal transient perturbations to the inlet conditions were imposed. It was evident that the thermal gradients of both sides of the tubesheet were misaligned which highlights the thermal lag and inertia that cause differential temperatures. The 1D-CFD methodology was developed successfully with results that proved to correspond well, for a wide range of conditions, to full CFD. The methodology was applied and can be, in future work, validated with experimental results or extended by modelling upstream and downstream components in the network solver. / Dissertation (MEng (Mechanical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / MEng (Mechanical Engineering) / Unrestricted

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Over the past 25 years, advances in the field of turbulence modeling have been made in an effort to resolve more scales, preserving unsteadiness within a flow. In this research two hybrid models, Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) and Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation (SBES) are implemented in solving the highly unsteady flow over a rotating arrangement of three cylinders. Results are compared to those from wind tunnel experiments carried out at North Dakota State University. Both models show close agreement with first and second order turbulence quantities, and SBES shows much greater flow structure detail due to its ability to resolve smaller scales. The Strouhal number for the flow is found to be a function of the rotational speed of the arrangement with von Karman-like structures resulting from each cylinder's wake over a full rotation. SAS shows a constant computational cost as Re increases while the SBES's computational cost increases relatively linearly.

Performance of vacuum cleaners are affected by factors such static pressure, airflow rate and efficiency. In this thesis work, attempt has been made to design a fan to meet the requirements of suction static pressure and air flow rate and in the process understand the fan design parameters that affect these performance parameters. Parametric study has been conducted for the same, by choosing six fan design parameters. Additionally, ways to increase the fan efficiency has been investigated during the parametric study. Computational Fluid Dynamics is used to visualize the flow inside the fan casing and further to simulate fan performance at an operational point. Steady state RANS and moving reference frames was used to model the turbulence in the fluid flow and rotation of the fan, respectively. Performance curve showing the relation between static suction pressure and mass flow rate is plotted for the base model is in proximity to the required performance. Parametric study was conducted on the six fan design parameters: Fan diameter, number of impeller blades, blade outlet angle, radius of the curve connecting inlet to outlet section of the fan, diffuser exit length and splitter blade length. The range for each parameter analysis was restricted so that static pressure values are around the required performance. Greater performance variation was found with design parameters: fan diameter, blade outlet angle, radius of the curve connecting inlet to outlet section of the fan and diffuser exit length. This variation at low mass flow rate can be majorly attributed to the randomness in the flow captured by entropy contours. At high mass flow rate, blockage in the flow visualized by pressure contours reasoned for the performance variation. Greater performance variation was not when design parameters such as number of blades and splitter blade length were varied. Larger variation of these parameters is required to see better variation.